


In the end, we get what we deserve.

by firstnameithoughtof



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, M/M, Post-Apocalypse, Romance, Spoilers, conflicted feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:20:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25515661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firstnameithoughtof/pseuds/firstnameithoughtof
Summary: "Jonas spends his days with Claudia trying to reverse engineer a time machine but he finds that he's strangely content in the spaces between sleep and work, when he's with Noah."
Relationships: Elisabeth Doppler/Noah | Hanno Tauber, Jonas Kahnwald/Noah | Hanno Tauber
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Massive spoilers ahead. My first attempt at a fic set in the Dark universe.

It’s been 2 years since the world ended. Humans are beginning to develop technology again. They’re fusions of the past and present, creations pieced from the scraps of the world that was. Noah doesn’t understand how any of it works, no matter how many times Jonas tries to explain.

They're laughing and joking around and Jonas notices that Noah's started to watch him with his soul-baring stare more than he watches Elisabeth. He spends more time talking with Jonas than he does learning sign language with Elisabeth.

It's been years since he's seen Martha and months since he's even thought about her. Jonas spends his days with Claudia trying to reverse engineer a time machine but he finds that he's strangely content in the spaces between sleep and work, when he's with Noah.

Sometimes, Noah starts giving him the cold shoulder, retreating back to Elisabeth’s side. And he starts thinking about the past again. But recently Noah’s been pulling away less and less frequently.

Until one day, he's making fun of Noah's baffled stare, the one he always has when he checks on him and Claudia’s progress on the machine. And Noah’s huffing along good-naturedly, saying that at least he can chop firewood, something that Jonas still hasn't mastered.

“It’s hard!”

“It’s been 2 years!”

Noah offers to give him pointers. He doesn't know how, but he ends up behind Jonas, hands gently adjusting his gangly limbs.

He realizes that, without either of them realizing, he's grown several inches taller than Jonas. Jonas notices that Noah’s paused, and turns to face him. Looking down into Jonas's puppy dog eyes, his heart skips in a way that it never does for Elisabeth.

In the end, it's Jonas who makes the first move because Noah is too paralyzed by past and future knowledge. He's too flustered trying to think of what Adam’s told him, the assignment he's been given, and it's the gentle press of Jonas's exceptionally chapped lips that brings him back to the future

Stunned beyond belief, Noah stumbles backwards one step. 2 steps. This wasn't how things were supposed to happen. He’s panicking, wordlessly but loudly panicking. This wasn't supposed to happen, wasn't part of Adam’s plans. He’s broken the predestined sequence of events

Is he going to disappear? Is Jonas? Is Adam going to materialize out of thin air and shake his head disapprovingly? He's once again torn out of his head by Jonas, who grips him by the forearms and lets him collapse onto him

Jonas lowers them both to the cold ground, on a cushion of rotting leaves. and lets Noah quietly ponder. Nothing’s happened. The loop is intact. Their dalliance is part of the loop? It was always going to happen? He wants to tell Jonas everything, Adam be damned. But he can't. If Jonas knew the real reason why he's here, he'd never want to see him again. Instead, he settles for croaking out a question.

"Martha?"

"She's gone. They're all gone. Also, did you know that she's my aunt? That's weird. And gross."

Jonas's easy acceptance should calm him. And it does for a while. He's calmed by searing kisses and late night fumbling in pitch-black darkness. But when Jonas is tinkering with Claudia, and he's alone with his thoughts, he can't help but fixate on the loop. He and Jonas were predetermined.

Adam was right after all. Nothing he does is truly of his own volition. What he has with Jonas is meaningless. As meaningless as what he’s supposed to have with Elisabeth. Slowly, over the course of months, he lets what he has with Jonas peter out. He doesn't let Jonas's sad eyes, growing sadder still, sway him. He has a job to do.

And finally, years and years later, when Charlotte is stolen, and Jonas is the only person he has left in front of him to rage at, he leaves.

He ends up back in 1920. When he reaches Adam’s sanctum again, he is numb. This is Jonas, he thinks, unable to move further than the doorway into Adam’s space.

He's staring at Adam, who knew what they had together when the world was ash. And he sent Noah anyway. What else isn't he being told?

He's being gripped by the forearms, and he twitches out of his head. It's Adam. Jonas. It's always him. Grounding him again and again, at every age, in every era.

He’s so tired of everything. He doesn't want to think anymore. His daughter is lost to him and he doesn't know where to start looking for her. He's left Elisabeth on her own far far into the future and he feels guilty that he won't miss her all that much. He’s lived so many years and he's right back where he started, over 30 years ago, with a man who saw him leave a boy and return a man but has somehow seen everything inbetween already.

He’s older and taller now. Still taller, he notes, than Jonas. Adam. He's looking into familiar eyes that he's stared into countless times before. Surrounded by expanses of ruined skin, they’re sadder, but just as bright as he remembers. When did he stop looking into those eyes? Why did he?

"Jonas." he whispers.

"Hanno," rasps back to him. "I'm sorry"

He tilts his head in a question.

"About Charlotte," Adam. No, Jonas, continues.

It takes him several seconds to realize what he's being told. "You know where she is."

"She's safe."

"Can I see her?"

"You will, in time."

He could rage. He can see himself wringing Jonas by the neck and demanding to be taken to his daughter. Instead, he chooses to trust. Because the eyes he can't seem to escape are wide and clear. They are full of sadness but also hope and passion.

He leans in and lightly presses his lips against Jonas's. The skin is tight and uneven, but still chapped beyond all reason. He's about to step back but arms come up and around him and hold him closer. He can feel Jonas's smile against his mouth.

They’re content like this for years. Hanno leaves their sanctum as dictated, performing his cursed predestined path, returning to Jonas when he can. They're hurtling along, following the machinations of a mysterious book that he hates.

He doesn't allow himself to think too hard about the end of everything, when the loop is to be broken, and what that means for him and Jonas. He's so busy not thinking about it that he's shocked when it's finally about to happen. He's watching Jonas setting up his chess pieces and following him to Martha's execution.

He watches with tears in his eyes as she's ripped to pieces by a machine he still doesn't understand, despite Jonas's best efforts to explain.

And when nothing happens, he's staring helplessly into eyes that, for the first time, are empty.

"What do we do now?" he asks.

"I don't know."

So he wraps his arms around Jonas and lets his tears fall. He feels rather than hears when Jonas falls apart and he hold tighter, keeping them both from shattering into pieces.

He doesn't know how much time has passed, only that it does. For once, he feels helpless in the face of it. They've migrated to the ground. Jonas's ridiculous collared coat cushions them. Not a word has passed between them. There's nothing to say.

His fingers begin to tingle. Then his arms. His chest. His head. Pressure begins to build inside him. Startled, he turns to Jonas. He must feel it too with how shocked he looks. The loop. It's finally unraveling. Not by their hands, but nevertheless, unraveling.

Their bodies start to disintegrate. It's not painful. Just tingly. Particles float up and away. Faster and faster. He's staring into eyes that are filled with peace.

They’re gone.


	2. Epilogue

Hanno is sweating through his undershirt and into his work uniform. He hates working through his summer vacation, but his parents say he has to start saving for college. So while his sister is biking with friends to the lake, he's stuck working at their town's local garden center.

He's almost done with the pile of wood he's supposed to cut down to size for firewood when his boss appears with a boy who looks completely out of his depth. He has floppy hair and sad puppy dog eyes that pin him in place.

"We've got ourselves a new team member. He'll be tailing you around for the rest of the summer," he says, before disappearing and leaving him with a boy who looks like he's never chopped firewood before.

Rolling his eyes, he sets down the axe and stretches out a hand.

"Hanno."

The boy smiles shyly, toothy and kind, and extends his own smooth, uncalloused hand.

"Jonas."


End file.
